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2014 in review + Happy 2015!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 160,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 7 days for that many people to see it.

It’s been a quiet year but thank you to everyone for sticking with us for another year. We can’t help with our busy lives but we’ll continue doing our best to update as and when we can. Also, I just want to let everyone know that I’m seriously considering on whether or not I should still continue my detailed reviews…in exchange for more frequent updates but less detailed reviews, or even non-spoiler ones. Because I’m getting old and I get easily tired from note-taking nowadays.

Anyway, if you have anything to say with regards to that just feedback to me. Thanks again for following us, and hope that the new year brings great things to everyone!

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22 thoughts on “2014 in review + Happy 2015!”

if writing summaries is a chore then don’t do it. write what you want to write. you have a strong opinion about a game? write it down. game is kinda dull and not interesting? just put a brief game summary and your general thoughts. i think ultimately there’s very little otome game blogging going on nowdays so readers are willing to read everyone’s thoughts on it be it long or short 🙂

Happy New Year! I hope this year slows down a little so you guys can get in more gaming/other hobby time in, but I know that’s not likely so I’ll just wish you luck.

I actually had my whole comment written and accidentally navigated away from the page near the very end and I lost it all now, so this version will be a little shorter than the last…which in the end might be better because it was basically an essay xD

I really like your detailed reviews. I admit that. Also, I know some people either don’t have access to the game or don’t have the money to purchase them so having those plot-detailed reviews are helpful to them. I admit also that, particularly when I get lazy, it’s nice to be able to touch bases and be like…oh, is THAT what happened? That’s why I was so confused, because I missed that key information there or misunderstood this one point here. Sometimes my language ability/comprehension isn’t as high as I would like so I miss a lot and your reviews have often helped fill in those spaces that were lacking.

However, if I had to put my vote in, I would cast it with making shorter reviews, or at least less plot intensive ones. The first reason is because well…it’s tiring. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Knowing that, it makes it harder to write them because it becomes such a huge undertaking. If you’re stuck wanting to follow your old format, which was established during a period when you had more free time, it’ll be hard to keep to. You should make more obtainable goals for yourself so writing a review doesn’t become a monster you can’t tackle. Second, I personally get more from the analyses or interpretations that get mixed in with the review. One of the reasons I enjoy being in this community so much is to have that ability. The games present to us certain material and we all take it in different ways and put in our two cents and can discuss it with others. There have been so many times when I was able to gain appreciation for a certain event or for a certain character I might not have cared for originally just from reading someone else’s take on the whole thing. It really adds a whole level of enjoyment. We can agree on some things and disagree on others but both add something.

Non-spoiler ones would be okay too. A little harder to discuss on, but those have their own merit. They’re particularly good for people who don’t like spoilers but still generally want to know how the games goes and if it’s worth investing it.

I wish I could take my own advice about trying to make obtainable goals but you know…it’s always harder to follow your own advice xD I haven’t touched an otome game in months. I did listen to some drama CDs, but that’s kind of different to playing a game anyway.

And ack, sorry that you comment was lost. I’m thankful that you typed another up!

Thank you for your input! Like you said, I had a lot more free time back then – and as much as I’d like to, sadly I can’t have that amount of free time now. So I guess this means that I should do some give-and-take with my current style. ;w; Totally agree with your point about analysis and interpretations. It’s really fun to be able to dig deep in a game which allows that. I’m really glad that everyone’s being so understanding and nice with their comments. :’3

I hope that you find the motivation to play an otome game soon too! ><9

It happens way too often unfortunately. I used to be good about periodically saving, but I didn’t do that for a while and when I thought to do it is when I navigated to a different page. It was rather depressing. Almost like I wouldn’t have lost it if I hadn’t considered saving it at the last minute. On the plus side, I think despite the length the organization came out a little better, so I guess that’s fine.

It’s hard to change. I try to be open about it too but sometimes it’s hard anyway. Good luck trying to work out how you want to approach the reviews!

I actually did play a game. It wasn’t the one (or two) that I should’ve been working on, but at least I played something. I’m still reeling from the my-god-what-did-I-just-play feeling, but I don’t know if I have the will to review it. I kind of want to, mostly to express that feeling because I have so much stuff I could comment on in this game, but I think I’d have to give some insight into what actually happened in the story in order to talk about it…and I really didn’t play it that carefully. It was so wtf that I skipped a lot but I think I still generally got the gist of what was going on. I also don’t think I want to replay it to catch more. Seriously though. I don’t know why I always gotta choose things to review that make me question my sanity. Why I do this to myself I don’t know. Anyways, we’ll see. If I do it, I have to do it now/soon while it’s still fresh and before I play/listen to something else.

I think everyone who’s been commenting understands the situation regardless of if they have their own blog or not. I don’t think my answer would’ve changed even if I hadn’t started up a blog.

Ahaha I can understand that sentiment. Admittedly I don’t review everything I play either and it’s fine if you choose not to. Sometimes it’s hard to organise your thoughts. But from the way you describe it, I’m rather curious as to what exactly is the game you’re talking about – so if you’re still up for writing the post I will read it. XD

Hahahah. I actually started a review for it, but after working on it for a couple hours (basically half a day), I stopped. If I had finished it in one go, I would’ve definitely posted it, but stopping like I did means I just lost the drive for it. This game in particular I think needs to be written right after playing because I had sooo much I wanted to say. It’s really hard to finish a review when it isn’t fresh in general though, and while I haven’t played any games since finishing it, I just got back from a trip so the feelings aren’t as immediate anymore.

And it’s Jooubachi no Oubou, since you were wondering. I was planning on writing about Menou and Kaguya’s games in one post but the wtf feeling came from Kaguya’s game. I played Menou’s game almost a year ago now. It wasn’t even just one route, although I feel like one was worse than the other in a certain sense…gah. So much to write about that game but I don’t know if I want to do it anymore. I already put the effort into starting it and shaping the organization, but I feel like when I stopped it was with the feeling that I wouldn’t finish. In fact…I’m not sure if I already deleted it LOL. I might have.

No problem! I hope that you were able to kind of figure out what you’re going to do.

Detailed reviews take a lot of time and dedication so it’s really hard while working when you don’t even have enough time to play the games you want to ;ww; Detailed reviews and non-detailed reviews cater to different audience (even among otome gamers, there’s this attitude towards spoilers) so there’s no way to please everybody so just do whatever you feel like? I know your detailed reviews are already selectively detailed (often according to bias XD), but you might consider an “even more selectively detailed” kind of review when you write only for the parts you found interesting/worth mentioning and be even more brief about or even skip other parts. You can also try “specific details upon friendly reasonable request” if you feel like it?

Personally what I like to read in my friends’ writings about otoge in general are their personal opinions like what they thought about the characters and plot, why, their favorites and favorite scenes, how much they liked the game, and what stands out about the game to them. I like to read interpretations and point-outs to things that I might have missed. I also like to read fangirling だいたい可愛いから XD Upon finishing it’s more fun to talk referring to spoilers so a great divide of spoilers would be helpful :). Ps. Are you to play Code:Realize soon? I want to hear more from my friends playing this :3c

Your first sentence totally summed up my current situation omg. orz (And about my selective bias www) Thank you so much for your input too. Everyone’s comments are giving me confidence to go ahead and…basically do what I want to do. ;w; And yeah indeed, it’s much easier to discuss things with some spoilers present as opposed to a non-spoiler post where you’d have to censor them out. I will definitely keep that in mind!

And yes I bought both Code:Realize and Senjou no Waltz! I want to at least finish Jyuuzaengi 2 first (hopefully I’ll be more motivated now) before playing those. But just to let you know, I also got Sen no Kiseki and started playing (with my JPN PSN account). I’ll try to add everyone as friends on that account soon. :3

OMG YOU GOT SEN NO KISEKI!?! *A* <–EXCITED \o\ /o/
I'm having a lot of fun with all the subtle details this game has to offer ^-^. It took quite a bit of time to get used to everything the game throws at you at first but it was worth it. Also Rean ;ww;<33 (I totally fell for him lol ..but I like all the characters) The character interaction gets more and more interesting as you go on :3c Friendly warning: The Sen II PV contains massive spoilers so stay away from it until you finish the first game

Also I recently just caved in and got Code:Realize too /o\ I'll probably juggle it with Sen. That said, your determination on clearing your backlog is great, so ganbatte with Jyuuza2!!! \o/

Yes I did! Well I actually played the demo for Sen no Kiseki II (oops) so I kinda know what the massive spoiler is ahaha. But thanks to that I also got used to the system pretty quickly when I started Sen no Kiseki. I really like all the characters too, though personally Eliot and Fie are my favourites.

In regards to your reconsideration of your reviewing format, I think it should be situational. Some games are pretty straightforward with their narratives and don’t really require a super-detailed account of getting the overall picture (such as Starry Sky). Perhaps the more intricate ones that deal with more complicated themes are better when deciding what should be inspected under the microscope (such as Black Wolves Saga). 🙂 I’ve been having a bit of trouble settling into a review format myself (maybe because I’m still a beginner).

Ultimately, I think that you should write about whatever however you feel like. I know I’ll appreciate your reviews whichever format you choose.

Thank you for your comment! You brought up a valid point about the game content itself, which I guess I can tell myself sometimes so that I don’t always go for one style of reviewing. I like how structured how review format is too though, it’s very nicely thought-out!

No problem; I’m glad my perspective was useful to you. 🙂 Thanks for the kind words- I initially came up with a structured format as it helped me organise what I wanted to get across. If I just wrote and wrote, my opinions would be all over the page!